Posted: May 7, 2018 3:00pm ET

This week, the
Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
is expected to approve a new set of labeling guidelines that for the
first time will allow producers to headline the word "Nobile" in large type.

"The main word
you will see on the shelf will be 'Nobile.' It's cosmetic but it's very
important," says one of the idea's initiators, Max de Zarobe of Avignonesi.

Vino Nobile was
one of Italy's most esteemed wines for centuries, though it has been eclipsed
in recent times by other Tuscan wines. The "noble" change is designed to help
reclaim the Montepulciano area's past glory and solve twin problems.

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is frequently confused with the
oft-disrespected Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, which has no relation to the Tuscan
town; that wine is made primarily from the Montepulciano grape and comes from
the Abruzzo region of east-central Italy. Among those who know it's made from
Tuscany's signature grape, Nobile is often perceived as a weaker cousin of
Brunello di Montalcino, which is 100 percent Sangiovese, to the west.

"There is a lot
of myth out there—positive for Montalcino and negative for Montepulciano," says
de Zarobe, speaking from Avignonesi's hilltop headquarters in a former 19th-century
agricultural school. "We have to destroy the myth and slay this dragon once and
for all."

Some of
Montepulciano's more than 70wine
producers believe they can make Sangiovese as high in quality and as ageworthy
as their Montalcino counterparts. The two towns are 20 miles apart, separated by
the undulating Val d'Orcia. Montepulciano has a continental climate with soils that
tend to have more clay, while Montalcino has more Mediterranean influence and more
limestone.

"In most cases,
the quality of the wines is the same," de Zarobe claims. "We want to put
ourselves in competition with Brunello."

To that end, de
Zarobe has also led the creation of "The Alliance" of six Nobile producers—Avignonesi,
Antinori's La Braccesca, Boscarelli, Dei, Poliziano and Salcheto—who, according to the group's manifesto, aim to "restore Nobile's badge of
honor."

Starting with the
2015 vintage, set to be released this fall, each Alliance member has committed to producing a
single-vineyard cuvée from 100 percent Sangiovese that will bear the group's logo. The Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG requires only 70 percent Sangiovese, which can be blended with Canaiolo Nero
and other local grapes.

Avignonesi's
version, "Poggetto di Sopra," from the vineyard that produces some of the estate's most elegant and complex wines, will fill 250 cases. To further show
off its terroirs, the estate also
plans to release three more single-vineyard, all-Sangiovese Vino Nobile
bottlings with the 2015 vintage.

De Zarobe, 61, a France-born Basque, is the husband of Virginie Saverys, the
Belgian lawyer and shipping scion who bought Avignonesi a decade ago, and helps
run the business side of the winery, though he doesn't hold any formal title.

"It all began as
a mistake," de Zarobe says of the couple's Tuscan
adventure.

At his 50th birthday
dinner in Tuscany in 2007, the couple discussed with Alberto Falvo, then the
co-owner of Avignonesi, the idea of buying out his brother. Soon after,
Saverys, who had retired from law, took a 30 percent share in the estate, renowned for its Vin Santos. After
wrangling over business details with Falvo, she bought the entire company in
2009.

"The entire
market was convinced we didn't know what we were doing. And they were right,"
de Zarobe says with a laugh.

The couple dove
into the estate, studying wine in Bordeaux and recruiting young talent in
winemaker (now CEO) Matteo Giustiniani, who worked with late Bordeaux
consultant and educator Denis Dubourdieu,and in agronomist Alessio Gorini, who came from Burgundy's Domaine Leflaive.

Saverys, who has
taken a lead on the agriculture side, transformed Avignonesi with her young team
and new ideas. She tripled the size of the staff and began buying up vineyards
in prime terroirs,allowing them to
increase the percentage of Sangiovese in the wines. In 2012, as the Italian
economy tanked, the couple bought more vineyards, along with the modern
state-of-the art cellar built by Ruffino for its Vino Nobile. While more than
doubling the size of their holdings, and increasing production to more than 42,000 cases a year, Saverys has undertaken the daunting task
of converting all their vineyards—totaling more than 400 acres—to biodynamic farming.

"At one time, it seemed like Nobile was going
to die," says de Zarobe. "For us, this became a challenge."

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